Observations and provocations from The Times' Opinion staff

Joe, you made the rant too strong

September 10, 2009 | 12:21
pm

After an editorial board discussion about whether the Supreme Court is about to allow unions and corporations to monopolize political campaigns, I logged onto Facebook. There I found several posts from friends (and "friends") linking to a fund-raising site for Rob Miller, the Democrat who is challenging healthcare heckler Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina. As one poster put it: "Over 10,000 contributions and $350K for Rob Miller against Joe You Lie Wilson! 400k, here we come."

Barack Obama was exaggerating when he suggested that the large amounts of contributions he raised on the Internet were a form of public financing. Obama also benefited from traditional donors. But the Obama campaign's success is a reminder that Web-driven contributions are changing the equation in political fund raising.

Of course, corporations can use the Internet too. But the more level playing field sought by so many campaign-reform enthusiasts may be smoothed out by technology, whatever the Supreme Court does.